“There's more substance in my prose and my poetry than in all my films together. Writing is a more direct way of expressing yourself because, in cinema, you always have finances, organization, actors, technical apparatus and all that stuff coming in between.” WayWritingTogetherFilmActorsStuffDirectOrganizationFinanceSubstanceCinemaProseExpress Yourself Author:Werner Herzog
“You are confronted with abysses of time that are, in a way, unfathomable. You see a painting in charcoal of raindeer and it was left unfinished and somebody else finished it. But through radio carbon dating we know that the next one completed the painting 5,000 years later. You're just blown away by the notion of passage of time. We have no relationship to that kind of depth of time.” KnowsWayYearsKindNextLeftPaintingDatingDepthNotionRadioFinishedPassagesCarbonAbyssUnfinishedThe Next OnePassage Of TimeUnfathomableBlown AwayCharcoal Author:Werner Herzog
“My non-fiction films are pretty much fiction, or at least close... It's all "movies" for me. I never have searched for a subject. They always just come along. They never come by way of decision-making. They just haunt me. I can't get rid of them. I did not invite them.” WayI CanFilmDecisionFictionSubjectsDecision MakingInvitesNon Fiction Author:Werner Herzog
“I have always postulated that we have to find a new way to deal with reality. It's not so much facts that interest me, but a deeper truth in them - an ecstasy of truth, an ecstatic truth that illuminates us. That's what I've been after.” WayFactsRealityInterestDealsDeeperEcstasyNew WaysEcstatic Author:Werner Herzog
“I have been in lots of very intense life situations. I have been shot at, and I have been hungry, and I have been in solitude, and I have also briefly been behind bars. So in a way, I know the heart of men.” KnowsMenWayHeartHas BeensBehindsSituationSolitudeShotsBarsHungryIntense Author:Werner Herzog
“This is the birth of the modern human soul. The artists are like us, not like the Neanderthals, who had no culture - and who incidentally were still roaming the landscape at the time the paintings were made. It is striking that there is a distant cultural echo that seems to reach all the way down to us, over dozens of millennia.” WayHumansMadeStillsSoulSeemsArtistCultureModernPaintingBirthMade ItLandscapeDozenEchoesHuman SoulRoamingNeanderthals Author:Werner Herzog
“I've never left my culture. I've left my country, but I've not left my culture. In the same way, you shouldn't be worried why George Lucas is going to the outer galaxy to make a movie. He's still making a film within his culture; he's making an American film. I go to Thailand or the Peruvian jungle, the Amazon, and I still make Bavarian films.” WayStillsCountryFilmCultureLeftWorriedGalaxyJungleAmazonThailandAmerican FilmPeruvians Author:Werner Herzog
“In a way, I managed to get the deepest things, the best things out of people. That's why I'm a filmmaker. If you don't have it in you, you'd better do something else.” PeopleIfsWayBest ThingsFilmmaker Author:Werner Herzog
“You should look straight at a film; that's the only way to see one. Film is not the art of scholars but of illiterates.” WayShouldLooksArtFilmScholar Author:Werner Herzog
“I couldn't roam wildly and speak secretly with villagers [in North Korea]. No way you could do that. And honestly, I didn't even try. I was realistic of what I could do and yet persuaded them into accepting numerous things that I shouldn't have filmed.” WayTryingSpeakAcceptingHonestlyRealisticKoreaNorth Korea Author:Werner Herzog
“The daredevil aspect to what I did there is moving a monstrously big ship over a mountain in the jungle of Peru with 800 or 900 or so native people from the area. So that idea was wild but the way it was executed was prudent. Nobody was ever hurt and when it became clear that we had to be more secure with the posts that would hold the ship, I spent 12 days having a post built that would have withstood the force of 10 times the weight of my ship.” PeopleWayIdeasBigsMovingForceHurtClearMountainBuiltAreasAspectWeightShipsSecurePostsNativeJunglePrudentPeruDaredevil Author:Werner Herzog
“Netflix trusted me in a way that was very, very pleasant.” WayPleasantTrustedNetflix Author:Werner Herzog
“I'm not a citizen of America, I cannot vote. But it is fascinating because there's a new kind of protagonist out there that we didn't expect. By the way, I'm not in any panic at all.” WayKindAmericaCitizensVoteFascinatingPanicProtagonists Author:Werner Herzog
“You can't have a helicopter fly over boiling lava. It would've exploded from the heat, and is just way too dangerous. The pilot of a helicopter would've flatly refused anyway.” WayDangerousHeatPilotsHelicoptersBoilingLava Author:Werner Herzog
“It seems odd, but people who see my films normally take them in in a deeper way than you would actually watch a film, let's say The Terminator or whatever.” PeopleWaySeemsFilmWatchesDeeperOdd Author:Werner Herzog
“It is something more fleeting than what you normally see. People might somehow take it into their own dreams, into their own life, in a way. I hear it more recently; people are telling me that when they leave the theater and see one of my films, they are not alone anymore. It's probably more that kind of feeling. If I managed to do a film like that, everything is fine.” PeopleIfsWayKindFeelingsDreamMightFilmFineTheaterFleetingNot Alone Author:Werner Herzog
“Otherwise [digital revolution] hasn't changed my way of filmmaking, I'm not nostalgic in postulating we should still make films on celluloid. I love celluloid but I don't need to continue on celluloid.” WayNeedsShouldStillsFilmChangedRevolutionMy WayDigitalFilmmakingNostalgicCelluloidDigital Revolution Author:Werner Herzog
“By the way, today with digital cameras and editing on your laptop, and things like that, you can make a feature film, a narrative feature film easily for $10,000.” WayTodayFilmCamerasNarrativeFeaturesDigitalEditingLaptopsDigital Cameras Author:Werner Herzog
“There are certain ways, narrative forms, that do not function as a continuation, for example, of 3D movies. You see, what is obvious to me is virtual reality or immersive 360 degrees virtual reality is not somehow a part of 3D movies, and it is not a new form of video games, it's neither, it is something completely new, something different, and nobody has come up yet with real convincing content.” WayDifferentRealRealityFormCertainGamesExampleDegreesFunctionCome UpObviousVideoNarrativeConvincingVirtual RealityContinuation Author:Werner Herzog
“Your film is like your children. You might want a child with certain qualities, but you are never going to get the exact specification right. The film has a privilege to live its own life and develop its own character. To suppress this is dangerous. It is an approach that works the other way too: sometimes the footage has amazing qualities that you did not expect.” WayWantChildrenSometimesCharacterMightFilmCertainQualityDangerousLike YouApproachOur ChildrenPrivilegeYour ChildrenSpecifications Author:Werner Herzog
“The opinion of the public is sacred. The director is a cook who merely offers different dishes to them and has no right to insist they react in a particular way. A film is just a projection of light, completed only when it crosses the gaze of the audience[...]” WayDifferentLightFilmOpinionAudienceParticularOffersDirectorsCrossesSacredCooksDishesProjection Author:Werner Herzog
